June 9, 2014

The fertility rate fell to a record low 62.9 births per 1,000 women aged 15-44 in 2013, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. . . .

Demographers expected the fertility rate to fall during recession, as financially strapped families put off childbearing. But what has surprised some demographers is both the depth of the decline and the fact that fertility has continued to drop even over the course of the country’s five years of slow but steady recovery. The rate has fallen steadily each year since 2007, when it stood at 2.1 percent. . . . The financial crisis “has had the most punishing impact on demographic trends of anything since the Great Depression,” Johnson said.

The economy is so much worse than anyone wants to admit. Inflation is really hurting people. Food, energy, everything has been rising astronomically - but the government, it its wisdom, took those things with volatile prices out of the CPI.

There is no job stability. Health care is a joke thanks to Obama. Taxes are high and going higher.

I'd venture a guess that student loans are doing a number on this as well. It's hard to consider starting a family when 1) you can't afford a house, and 2) that monthly student loan payment sucks out a sizable portion of your expendable income.

A) Responsible people don't have babies outside of marriage.B) Responsible people wait to marry until they are financial solvent.C) Claims of a "slow but steady recovery" are nothing but fantasy out in the "real world". Outside of the cronyism of wall street and foggy bottom, we are in a socialism caused depression.D) Crushing student debt drains what little money the young have.

Result: Responsible people of breeding age CAN'T breed, responsibly. They can't afford to.

Not only that, anybody with eyes, ears and functioning brain cells realizes that this isn't a society that one would want to raise a child. So responsible people avoid it even if they can afford it.

Howdy Dr KIt's true that Mrs. Kranky would have done the heavy lifting. Pregnancy should be a team operation as far as possible, though, including being an intentional outcome. It's a metaphor with some limits.

Who wants their kid to have to grow up under a tyranny? If I hadn't already had my daughter I would have major reservations about forcing my progeny to live under the conditions we are creating in this country.

On the bright side, since the left became ascendant I don't fear dying as much! I mean, how bad could it be by comparison? And do I really want to stick around to see impending bankruptcy and disruption? We all know how this movie ends.

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